Oreo Cookies

This is perhaps the most out-of-character post I have ever made any blog anywhere, but the occurrence was so humorous that I felt that I could not properly convey my character and that of my relatives without mentioning our humorous side.  So, for example…

My brother, sister-in-law, and I were eating Oreo cookies in our kitchen.  We had just finished one package, so I went to cabinet and got out another package.  My sister-in-law remarked, “Another package.  It’s like they never end.”  My brother’s response was, “No, but my end is getting bigger as a result.”

I hope it made you laugh!

SfC

Ringing in the New Year!

So last night, I went to an amazing concert by an exceptional contemporary Christian band performing in the region for the News Years celebration.  It was very powerful, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Afterwards, I spent the rest of the evening with the youth group that I attended during high school and watched them go ice skating (I decided that I would probably not be good for my healing jaw; falling on your face historically isn’t).  We also stayed up to watch a New Years fireworks show, and went out for a late-night snack afterwards.  We got back at 2:00, so I didn’t get up until late this morning.

Now, I find myself thinking about a New Years Resolution.  To be honest, I have never liked New Years Resolutions.  To my mind, they always seemed like some kind of organized effort to will ourselves into a better world with nothing but good intentions, mostly because 90% of people make New Years resolutions that they know are drastically difficult for anyone to achieve and are often unrealistic.  The result of these unrealistic expectations is that people make commitments that they don’t expect to keep or, if they do intend to keep their resolutions, they are quickly disillusioned by realizing that they cannot.  From my perspective, when this happens, I see people becoming calloused to commitments and are establishing a pattern of breaking the commitments that they make.

Do not misconstrue, this, however.  I recognize that no one is perfect and that people should make every effort to improve themselves.  I am no different in this, and thus I find that I, too, desire to make some New Years’ Resolutions:

1. Limit myself to three sodas a week - Of course, everyone knows that soda isn’t good for health, and I know for a fact that I’m not the only person whose commiting myself to less soda.  However, I’m going to try and do this slowly and sort of ease into the changes I want to make.  This isn’t to say that I will always drink three sodas during the week; even now, there are weeks were I don’t drink any soda.  However, I’m hoping to establish a pattern of drinking as little soda as I can.  Three is the maximum, set with the hope that I won’t reach the maximum every week.
2. Walk every day – Some exercise would be good for me.  I’m not saying how much; I might walk a mile, or I might walk to class.  I want to at least say, “I’m going to be physically active, more so than I have been in the past.”
3. Forgive those who wrong me - “Forgive, and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37).”  In God’s eyes, all have sinned, and I’m no different, so there is no reason for me to be forgiven while I condemn others.  As Lewis B. Smedes said, “Forgiving is to set a prisoner only to discover that the prisoner was you.”
4. Finish Reading the Bible – I set before myself the task of reading the Bible from cover to cover in one year last February.  I’m hoping to meet that goal by this coming February, but more important than the “when” is the simple act of finishing.
5. Memorize the Book of James – We were doing this during the semester for our Bible study groups, and I managed to memorize the first two chapters and get started on the third.  I’ll focus on this more after I’ve read the Bible all the way through.
6. Pray First Thing When I Wake Up and Right Before I Go To Sleep – I like to think of it as bracketing my day in prayer.  By opening my day in prayer, I’m hoping that I will feel more in touch with God throughout the day.
7. Limit Myself to One Hour of Computer Games a Day - Again, there will be plenty of days, especially during the semester, when even one is too much and there are other things to be doing.  The idea is to give myself a ceiling limit that is not exceeded.
8. Read More – It’s vague, but effective.  I want to be reading more, if nothing else so that when my friends are talking about a book, I can contribute to conversation.
9. Be curious – curiosity is the gateway through which learning comes.  If you don’t ask questions fearlessly, then you will stop learning, and even though I don’t believe in Darwin’s theories about the origin of all life, he was right about this: the organism that does not learn dies.
10. Finish a rough script of The League of Kenushi Ryu this year – It’s a very aggressive goal, especially considering what I have yet to do, but I believe that with God’s help, this goal can be achieved.
11. Journal Consistently – I’ve often found that, if there some form of block obstructing my ability to write, it is often some form of unresolved conflict within myself, and writing in a journal seems to help that.
12. Persevere – If and when I fail to hold to these goals I have set before myself to do throughout the year, don’t just give up; just keep trying.  Failure is inevitable, but quitting is optional.

I have made all of the above New Years Resolutions with the full intention of going through with them.  We shall see how well I do!

SfC

Wisdom Tooth Extraction and Other Christmas Activities

I hope that my readers had a good Christmas with their families!

Yesterday, I got my wisdom teeth surgically removed.  Overall, I must say that the experience wasn’t so bad.  My biggest fear going into the procedure was lucidity; I don’t like the idea of not remembering what I’ve said or done.  The pain involved was a concern, for sure, but the thought that I might not remember something that I’ve said or done disturbs me.  Anyhow, that fear was about as unwarranted as my fear of pain; I have vague memories of trying to communicate with another guy in the Recovery of the building and of being wheel-chaired out to my mother’s vehicle to take me home.  My mother has also told me that I offered for her to stop at McDonald’s and get herself lunch and that I would be okay waiting in the van, but I have no memory of this.  Beyond this, my memory of yesterday afternoon grows clearer as yesterday wore on, and I’m happy to say that I am completely lucid and aware at this time.  With the help of some painkillers, I have also been able to avoid the worst of the pain that is associated with the surgery.

I must admit that the phase of using gauze pads to promote the blood clotting in my mouth was an unexpected discomfort, but I had stopped bleeding before I went to bed last night, so about my only physical restriction at this point is that I can’t eat burgers or any hard foods.  Instead, I have been on a steady diet of milkshakes, yogurt, and homemade pudding for the last 24 hours, though this isn’t exactly unneeded; I discovered after I had been home on break for a week that I had actually gained more weight (in terms of fat and mass, to be painfully truthful) since I came home from break than when I was at college, which seems backwards somehow.

Anyhow, that is what I have been experiencing for the last day or so.  Before that, I will admit that I have been doing scarcely anything that I set before myself to do over Christmas Break.  I have mainly been playing a few sci-fi computer games and watching Star Trek: Voyager.  However, I am hoping to change that in the next several days.

That’s about it for now.  God bless your day!

SfC